Accountability in the Green Economy

The opening assumption for this paper is that what is meant by “green economy”—as, for example, promoted by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and many others—is not merely a redecoration of the traditional economy with green trimming but a form of economic organization and priority setting substantially different from the one that has dominated economic thinking in the richer countries for the past several decades. Indeed, a green economy, thus conceived, is more than a reordering of priorities; it involves a significant rethinking of the assumptions upon which the traditional economy has been based (Najam, Runnalls, & Halle, 2007). If we are to avoid a slip back toward the traditional economy, strong accountability mechanisms will have to be built into the green economy from the start (Najam & Halle, 2010).